Beer: Reviews & Ratings

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On a speedboat tour of the Archipelago in Helsinki, Finland, we stopped for lunch at a small 300-year-old villa inhabited by an older couple. As part of the tour, and as a way to generate income, they showed us around their lands and treated us to lunch. Along with the delicious homemade sausage, homecooked bread, and salad, they had light and easy drinking refreshing beer for us...Koff I.

The pour yields about 1 fingers worth of head in a relatively well carbonated beer. At such a low gravity, the malt content is fairly simply and light, and that lends to the color of the beer, a light clean straw colored hue. The head retention is fleeting, though in a beer with such low alcohol, there were likely not enough proteins produced to form, much less retain, a stellar head.

The aroma is light and refreshing with a touch of grassy and floral hop character. Not bitter at all, as there seem to be only aroma hops in there. The flavor is similar, as floral and light grassy touches complement a light and sweet grainy flavor.

Thin on the palate, but disappointingly slightly under carbonated, this beer is certainly a great refreshing brew to enjoy on a hot day. Moreso, it goes great with homemade bread and sausage, especially so close to its birthplace. No doubt that this beer would not be the same were one to find a bottle outside of Scandinavia. (1,360 characters)

Head is healthy and white, with above average (~3 minute) carbonation owed to the low alcohol. Leaves no lacing as it recedes. Fizzy and thin. Body is a predictable clear pale copper of average vibrance. Clean, with no visible yeast particulate or sediment. Overall, it looks like any other European pale lager, and has no stand-out characteristics.

Aroma is just as predictable - a mixture of cheap malts (probably pilsner, maybe some Munich or pale), lowest common denominator barley, and a kiss of grassy hops (probably Noble). Seems overly sweet and artificial; cheap malt syrup/extract is suspected. Clean, with no noticeable yeast or off-notes. Aromatic intensity is average.

Taste follows the aroma, and the texture is what you'd expect, but it's refreshing and crisp - which is nice. The beer isn't as cloying or artificial as many pale lagers are, and the overcarbonation isn't severe. I'd stop short of calling it balanced, but it's pleasant in its simplicity. Not gestalt, and it won't impress the discerning drinker, but it's one-two punch of shallow grassy hops and simple light malts will satisfy in any casual context. I like it for what it is.

Syrupy and sticky, but forgivably so. Smooth and wet.

It succeeds at being refreshing and palatable, which is all a 2.5% beer really needs to be. It'll pair well with most foods and its avoidance of metallic off-character and cloying sweetness makes it worth trying if you're after something with a bit less punch. Not awful, but not notable. I won't be buying it again, but you could do worse for a low ABV pale lager.